Edward James

For other uses, seeEdward James (disambiguation).

Edward James
Not to Be Reproduced,a 1937 portrait of Edward James byRené Magritte
Born	Edward Frank Willis James (1907-08-16)16 August 1907 West Dean House,West Dean,Sussex,England
Died	2 December 1984(1984-12-02)(aged 77) Sanremo,Italy
Resting place	St. Roche's Arboretum,West Dean,Sussex,England
Education	Lockers Park School Eton Institut Le Rosey Christ Church, Oxford
Occupation(s)	poet, sculptor, patron of the arts
Spouse	Tilly Losch ​ ​ (m.1930;div.1934)​
Parent(s)	William Dodge James Evelyn Forbes

Edward Frank Willis James(16 August 1907 – 2 December 1984) was a British poet known for hispatronageof thesurrealistart movement.

Early life and marriage

James was born on 16 August 1907, the only son ofWilliam James(who had inherited a fortune from his father, merchantDaniel James) andEvelyn Forbes,a Scots socialite. He was reputedly fathered by thePrince of Wales(laterEdward VII)and in his anecdotal reminiscences, recorded inSwans Reflecting Elephants – My Early Years,Edward James also puts forward this hypothesis.In his memoirs he wrote "I was not, I was, in fact, his grandson" saying that it was his grandmother that had an affair with the Prince of Wales.However, there was also popular belief that Forbes was one of the Prince of Wales's mistresses and there was a much-quoted ballad byHilaire Bellocintimating this at the time.

Edward James had four older sisters:Audrey,Millicent, Xandra, and Silvia. He was educated atLockers Park School,then briefly atEton,then atLe Roseyin Switzerland, and finally atChrist Church, Oxford,where he was a contemporary ofEvelyn Waugh(Waugh attended Hertford College) andHarold Acton,a fellow student at Christ Church. When his father died in 1912 he inherited the 8,000-acre (3,200 ha)West Dean Houseestate inSussex,held in trust until he came of age. He was also left a large sum in trust when his uncleJohn Arthur Jamesdied in 1917.

James's first sponsorship of note was in publishingJohn Betjeman's first book of poems when at Oxford. He worked withBrian Howardon the Glass Omnibus. After Oxford, James had a brief career as a trainee diplomat at the embassy in Rome. He was asked to send a coded message to London that the Italians had laid the keels for three destroyers, but got the code wrong; the message said "300 destroyers". Shortly after this he was sent "on indefinite leave".

In the early 1930s, James marriedTilly Losch,an Austrian dancer, choreographer, actress and painter. He had several productions created expressly for her, the most notable of which wasLes Ballets 1933,which includedKurt Weill,Lotte LenyaandGeorge Balanchine.He andBoris Kochnocommissioned that yearBrechtandWeill'slast collaboration,The Seven Deadly Sins,which Balanchine produced, directed and choreographed.

James divorced Losch in 1934, accusing her of adultery withPrince Serge Obolensky,an American hotel executive; her countersuit, in which she made it clear that James was homosexual, failed.James was in fact bisexual.After the divorce, James joined a social set in England which included theMitford sistersand the composerLord Berners.

Surrealism

James is best known as a passionate supporter ofSurrealism,a movement that evolved fromDadaand the political uncertainty and upheaval ofWorld War Iand the following years. With a mix of Dada irreverence for the traditional political, religious, and bourgeois values of western civilization that they believed had led the world (and themselves as veterans of the war) to the First World War, the surrealist explored the possibilities that had been opened up bySigmund Freudregarding the subconscious mind, and the idea ofpure thought,unfiltered and uncensored by political, religious, moral, or rational principles.

He sponsoredSalvador Dalífor the whole of 1938 and his collection of paintings and art objects subsequently came to be accepted as one of the finest collections of surrealist work in private hands. He also provided practical help, supporting Dalí for about two years. They collaborated on theMae WestSofas and Lobster Telephones, which James had installed in his private home near West Dean House.

James appeared in two surrealist paintings, both by Magritte:

• Not to Be Reproduced
• The Pleasure Principle: Portrait of Edward James

Salvador Dali put James in touch with the Belgian surrealist painterRené Magritte(1889–1967).James later hosted Magritte for three weeks at his home on 35Wimpole Street,London in February and March 1937, where Magritte painted a number ofgouachesand oils, some of which were new, others were copies of his earlier work.The terms agreed on were that Magritte was to be paid £250 to paint copies or variations of three paintings selected by James from photographsOn the Threshold of Liberty(1929),The Red Model(1935),The Youth Illustrated(1936) and pay his own travel expenses, while James was to provide a studio space above his garage as well as art supplies and canvases. James intended to install the paintings behind backless mirrors, so as to only be observable in bright light.The new version ofThe Red Modelpainted at James request was a large canvas (72 × 52.5 in.) of higher quality than the original and given a British touch with the addition of a few English coins scattered in the dirt.It is now in theMuseum Boijmans van Beuningen,Rotterdam along with the 1937 version ofThe Youth Illustrated(79 × 60 in.). Magritte went on to paint at least seven versions ofThe Red Model.Magritte also enlarged and reformatted the 1937 version ofOn the Threshold of Liberty(94 × 73 in.), now in theArt Institute of Chicago,from horizontal to vertical to fit the intended installation site for James.In a letter toLouis ScutenaireandIrène Hamoir(February 18, 1937), Magritte wrote "London is a revelation. Of course, I'm only just beginning to discover it. But until now, everything is perfect (of course I don't speak English, but" there's something "). Yesterday evening we went to visitHenry Moore,a charming sculptor, sort ofArp-Picasso... "

In June that year, Magritte painted some portraits of James includingNot to be ReproducedandThe Pleasure Principle.In the first, James looks into a mirror which shows the back of his head; in the second James's head is an Enigma tic radiating light. Magritte paintedPleasure Principlefrom photographs of James taken byMan Ray,following Magritte's precise staging instructions.The Pleasure Principlewas based on a small ink sketch from the year before, titledFailed Portrait[ofPaul Éluard].InNot to be Reproduced,the book sitting on the mantle is the French edition ofEdgar Allan Poe'sThe Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket.His art collection included works byHieronymus Bosch,Giorgio de Chirico,Paul Klee,Leonora Carrington,Pavel Tchelitchew,Pablo Picasso,Giacometti,Max ErnstandPaul Delvaux.Most were sold at a well-publicized sale atChristie'stwo years after his death.

His intellectual interest in surrealism is demonstrated by his sponsorship ofMinotaure,a lavish Surrealist magazine published in Paris. His refurbishment ofMonkton House,in a part of theWest Dean Estate,was a Surrealist dream.It was done in collaboration with the pioneering British decoratorSyrie Maugham,and has some of the most iconic Surrealist works on display, including the largeMae WestLips Sofa to whichDalígave the form and colour of theactress'slips, and hisLobster Telephonein white. (The surrealist tradition at Monkton House was maintained when the interior designer Derek Frost did extensive work to the house and designed more custom pieces of furniture in the late 1980s.) James donated these two items (among others) to theBrighton Museum & Art Gallery.James's most fantastic surrealist creation was realised in the Mexican rain forest, a surrealist sculpture garden, "Las Pozas".

New Mexico

In 1940, James stayed inTaos, New Mexico,United States, as a guest ofMabel Dodge Luhan,where he was known for his amusing, clever eccentricity and effeminate manner. In Taos, he met the Hon.Dorothy Brett,an impoverished British aristocrat and painter, who in 1941 sold him nine paintings for $580. He later invited the 70-year-old Brett (as she was known) to return to Britain and reside at West Dean, but she declined.

Las Pozas

Main article:Las Pozas

The surrealist sculpture parkLas Pozas,Xilitla

Las Pozas ( "the Pools" ), near the village ofXilitla, San Luis Potosí,more than 2,000 feet (610 m) above sea level, in a subtropical rainforest in theSierra Gordamountains ofMexico,is a garden created by James. It includes more than 80 acres (32 ha) of natural waterfalls and pools interlaced with towering Surrealist sculptures in concrete.Massive sculptures up to four stories tall punctuate the site. The many trails throughout the garden site are composed of steps, ramps, bridges, and narrow winding walkways that traverse the valley walls.Construction of Las Pozas cost more than $5 million. To pay for it, James sold his collection of Surrealist art at auction.

West Dean

In 1964, James gave his English estate which includedWest Dean HouseatWest Deanto a charitable trust. The Edward James Foundation comprisesWest Dean College,a centre for the preservation of traditional arts and crafts, through short courses and full-time Diplomas and MAs. One of only two professional tapestry weaving studios in the UK and an art gallery are housed on a 6,400-acre (26 km²) estate which is open to the public through theWest Dean Gardens.

West Dean Collegeis part of the Edward James Foundation set up in 1971 in response to James' vision of establishing "an educational foundation where creative talents can be discovered and developed, and where one can spread culture through the teaching of crafts and the preservation of knowledge that might otherwise be destroyed or forgotten".

Edward James is buried in the St Roche's Arboretum atWest Dean,with the simple inscriptionEdward James 1907 – 1984 Poet.The stone was carved byJohn Skelton.

• 
  West Dean House, West Sussex, UK
• 
  St Andrew's West Dean, West Sussex, UK
• 
  Grave of Edward James, West Dean, West Sussex, UK.
• 
  The St Roche's Arboretum at West Dean, West Sussex, UK

Writings

I have seen such beauty as one man has seldom seen;
therefore will I be grateful to die in this little room,
surrounded by the forests, the great green gloom
of trees my only gloom – and the sound, the sound of green.
Here amid the warmth of the rain, what might have been
is resolved into the tenderness of a tall doom
who says: 'You did your best, rest' – and after you the bloom
of what you loved and planted still will whisper what you mean.
And the ghosts of the birds I loved, will attend me each a friend;
like them shall I have flown beyond the realm of words.
You, through the trees, shall hear them, long after the end
calling me beyond the river. For the cries of birds
continue, as – defended by the cortege of their wings –
my soul among strange silences yet sings.

—Edward James, Poet 1907 – 1984

• E. James,The Bones of my Hand,privately printed, London 1930.
• E. James,The Glass Omnibus,privately printed, London 1934.
• E. James,The Gardener Who Saw God,1937.
• E. James, "The Sight of Marble, and Other Poems", Julian Messner (New York), 1941
• Edward James wrote a collection of four poems,Sécheresses,andFrancis Poulencset them to music for choir (mixed voices SATB) and piano or orchestra in 1937.
• — (1982).Melly, George(ed.).Swans Reflecting Elephants, My Early Years.London: Weidenfeld.

Portrait sculpture

An early marble portrait sculpture of Edward James exists, by the sculptorIsamu Noguchi.

Popular culture

In a video available on youtube with the surrealist artist and singerGeorge Mellyin 1978, Edward James tells that he believed that his mother was the daughter ofAlbert Edward, Prince of Walesand not his lover as was widely rumoured at the time, see below.

A museum dedicated to Edward James opened its doors in Xilitla on 22 December 2022.Museo Edward Jamescontains a collection of wooden moulds used in the construction of Las Pozas, books written by James, photographs and drawings. It also features a rare painting by James, made under the supervision of his friend,Leonora Carrington.The museum is located across the road from the sculpture garden at Las Pozas.

External links

• Edward James, Builder of DreamsArchived2 May 2013 at theWayback Machine,documentary film by Avery Danziger
• Surreal Eden: Edward James & Las Pozas,byMargaret Hooks
• West Dean, the Edward James Foundation
• "The Secret Life of Edward James"onYouTube1978 George Melly interviews with Edward James
• Virtual tour app ofLas Pozas: Steps & Fallsavailable on iTunes store